most wide, vital, and irreconcileable differences of opinion; from high enthusiasm and Antinomianism, down to the grossest Pelagianism? Further; if the proposed end were really obtained, we should still have a right, and be in duty bound, to ask, whether the means to this end be legitimate. Were these Articles and this Liturgy given by divine inspiration? Did the framers of them ever advance such a claim? Mr. R. indeed seems to make a close approach to the putting forward of the claim; (page 22.) but has it been substantiated by its proper evidence, that of miracles? Is it not notorious, that the Articles and Prayer Book derive their legal authority solely from the votes of Parliament and the Royal Assent? Was not the first Act of Uniformity carried in opposition to the declared opinions and wishes of nearly all the bishops? With what colour, then, of reason or of historic faith, can the absence of such a binding power' as this, be represented as the sole cause of the German heterodoxies? We conceive that other reasons for the existence of the evil are easily to be discovered. Of these, some are too obvious to need being particularized, as they fall under the general head of human depravity, and the tendency to abuse and to corrupt the greatest of providential blessings. Of the more specific causes, we shall mention four, each of which includes a host of subordinate evil principles.

1. The unhappy idea, which had a wide and pestiferous influence at the time of the Reformation, of making men disciples of Christ by government edicts and ecclesiastical mandates. From this wretched principle arose the chief evils of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, which produced the oppression and banishment of individuals who would not renounce all at once the Roman Catholic religion, and this by magistrates who had but themselves just quitted that communion;-the murder of Servetus and many other deeds of horrid persecution, by even good men ;-the division of the Protestant interest into the two parties of the Reformed or Calvinistic, and the Evangelical or Lutheran ;-the fierce enmities and intolerance on both sides ;-the thirty years' war ;the inforcing of the use of appropriating formularies by the whole population of a country;-the bringing all young people to the sacramental communion ;-and, in a little time, the training up for the holy ministry those who had given no evidence of being holy persons. One who saw the beginnings of these things with his own eyes, and whose errors should never cover from our admiration his piety, his integrity, his candid and amiable temper, his labours, and his cruel sorrows,-Sebastian Castellio, thus wrote in 1555.

We see those who are endeavouring to reform the Church, bestow their chief pains in producing the outward form of sanctimoniousness; that is, that the word of God may be preached, the sacraments administered, the Bible read, psalms sung, prayers made publicly, and in every house, morning and evening, before meals and after meals, and all this in the vernacular tongue; also, that the Lord's Supper and public religious assemblies be attended; in a word, that • God be worshipped in all visible and palpable ways. What, some one may say, do not you approve of these things? Certainly I do: far from me be the reprehension of them!But, since wicked as well as good men may perform these outward actions, I wish to see the great stress laid upon such things as bad men cannot do, such as are the distinctive ⚫ and genuine evidences of a true Christian.-How many persons, with the outward form of religion, are only so much the more crafty, and malicious, and deceptive! So that the ⚫ proverb is exemplified, "The nearer the temple, the further from God." Labouring to purify the Church without, yet ⚫ neglecting to purify the soul within, is putting a new roof upon a falling house, or covering a patient with poultices, while deadly sickness lies at the heart.-O my brethren, let Ius think of our own affairs, let us examine our own hearts, let us drive out our own lusts, let us fear the Lord,-let us bear with one another, let us love each other, let us not shed blood, let us not harden our hearts.-The Lord is beginning to follow us with his judgements. War, pestilence, famine; all things rage on every side. Yet, every man sets up his own god, every man his own opinion; all are wise; every man listens to himself, and refuses to hear his neighbour. And, for a remedy of these things, shall we vex and accuse, banish, betray, and kill each other? Is this to appease an 'angry God? Is it not adding oil to the flames?-Let us seek Christ where he is to be found,-scourged and derided, spit upon and reviled, his visage marred, his beauty defiled, and by the whole world rejected. Such a Christ must we choose, and embrace; if we would rise and reign with him.'*

It is not difficult to perceive, that the inevitable consequences of this state of a religious profession would be, first, formalism and pharisaism, subtle self-righteousness under the names and forms of evangelical doctrine; then, hypocrisy, in all degrees and shapes; then, indifference to sentiment, a mutual

Quinque Impedimentorum, &c. i. e. Brief Enumeration of Five Hindrances which draw away the Minds of Men from the Knowledge of Divine Truth: a posthumous treatise, printed at Gouda, 1619.

and tacit understanding to regard confessions and formularies as articles of peace, rather than of faith, the exclusive preaching of the external evidences of revelation and of a dead morality; and finally, the avowed repudiation of fundamental truths.

2. We find another melancholy source of the evil, in the spirit and operation of a State Religion. Hence it is that irreligious men are constituted rulers, directors, and agents in the worship, profession, and government of the Church. Such men are radically enemies to the holy truths as well as duties of God's word; and, in the long run, they are sure to manifest their departure from them. Mr. Rose introduces with marked disapprobation, what he calls the grand position' of the pious Philip James Spener, (a contemporary and friend of Augustus Herman Franck,) that only a converted or regene'rated theologian could attain any true knowledge of his science.' (p. 36.) We trust that Mr. R. misunderstands the terms in which he gives this position; for, if not, if he denies the necessity of moral qualifications, a right state of the heart or affections towards God, in order, not to a mere theoretical understanding of the Gospel, but to a sincere faith in it, he is indeed sanctioning one of the most dangerous of errors. But we cannot impute to him such a denial. The solemn and awakening terms in which he speaks of the character of a Christian minister, in the perorations of his Second and Third Discourses, are irreconcileable with a disbelief of that influence of the Holy Spirit, from which all holy desires, all good 'counsels, and all just works do proceed.' We are far from saying that a man, without that heavenly grace, lies under a mental inability, or any sort of natural incapacity, for attaining a true knowledge of theological science.' On the contrary, we are persuaded, that nothing is wanting but the moral fitness of the mind; that is, a right state of the will and affections, a proper exercise of the voluntary powers, the springs of character and action. These moral powers, in the man who is unregenerate, (we speak not of baptism, but of that divinely conferred and inwardly received blessing which the Liturgy calls spiritual regeneration and the everlasting benediction of God's heavenly washing,) are so hostile to all true goodness, that, although such a man may understand theological truth never so extensively, in a manner that is merely intellectual and theoretical, he has no perception of its divine excellency, its holy beauty, its intrinsic charms, which, if we may use the wellknown words, are only a GUNTOTO. His mind, because of its governing principles, is" enmity against God;"-" it apprehendeth not that which cometh from the Spirit of God,

for it is to him foolishness, and he cannot conceive of it [i. e. aright and as he ought to do], since it must be judged of according to the principles of divine influence." The members of the Church of England would do well to attend to the most distinguished men of their own communion. From their fathers and their best divines they might learn, that God-does ⚫ still direct the humble and single-hearted, while he suffers the proud searcher to lose himself in this obscure field of truth: wherefore disobedient learning and industry, both are ⚫turned off from obtaining any certain and satisfactory knowledge of this divine mystery, as well as worldliness and voluptuousness.-[In this] spiritual husbandry-nothing can be brought to any great beauty, order, fulness, and maturity, without our own industry; nor indeed with it, unless the dew of HIS grace descend upon it, without whose blessing this 'spiritual culture will thrive as little as the labour of the husbandman without showers of rain.' (Henry More.) He is a true Christian indeed, not he that is only book-taught, but he that is God-taught; he that hath the unction from the Holy One, he that hath the Spirit of Christ within him.' (Cudworth.)

3. We esteem as a great accessory cause of this moral pestilence, the separation of a devout and serious spirit from theological discussions and biblical interpretations. This monstrous impropriety did not shew itself all at once. root, we fear, in the dry gravity and coldness of some comIt took mentators of the Remonstrant and Arian schools, whose works were introduced and powerfully recommended in Germany, about eighty years ago. It gradually increased unto more ungodliness, especially in the University Lectures; and quirk, jibe, and innuendo were without scruple used, in close connexion with the most serious and awful subjects. The sacred names and attributes, the law and the gospel of heaven, every doctrine and precept, every promise and threatening of the divine word, were readily associated with any form of jest and silly witticism. We cannot acquit John David Michaelis from a heavy share in this guilt; yet, we must observe, that those of his works which have been translated into English, seem, in this respect, more faulty than his Scripture Commentaries. So far as our acquaintance with the latter has extended, we have been gratified with observing less intrusion of his constitutional levity, and more seriousness of sentiment and ex

We cite the text according to the paraphrastic, but, we conceive, just translation of Michaelis.

pression, than appears, for instance, in the English Version, by the late Dr. Alexander Smith, of his "Mosaic Law."

4. We mention one other powerful cause; the miserable intolerance of the Protestant States of Germany. Had religious freedom existed, or even a liberal and paternal toleration of dissidents, the population of a town or village in which Neologism got possession of the parish pulpit, would most probably have formed a separate congregation with a pastor of their own choice, and the gospel of the Reformation and of Apostolic Christianity would have maintained its ground; yea, it would have flourished and triumphed. But the horror of any approach to popular liberty, united with the inveterate evil of subjecting all public worship to the prescriptive meddlings of the Government, was the characteristic malady of all the German principalities, great and small. In some of them, among whom the Prussian States deserve honourable mention, the evil has been abated in a considerable degree; but in others, particularly those under Austrian dominion or influence, it has awfully increased since their deliverance from Napoleon's iron grasp. Thus, the grand remedy has been shut out, which, otherwise, it is morally certain, would have been applied; and the people, compelled to attend the parish church, or to enjoy no public religion at all, have been brought down, with scattered exceptions, happily now becoming numerous, to the level of their unchristian and antichristian teachers. The same would have been the case in our own country, had not the non-conformists made their self-sacrificing stand against ecclesiastical usurpation, and had not the Revolution under King William secured the liberty of conscientious separation. The cause of the Evangelical Dissenters operated both as a remedy and as an example to the remains of piety in the Establishment. Without it, popery or formalism would, according to appearances, have secured an ascendancy fatal to all the interests of Great Britain. At the present moment, also, the revival of religion in France is setting strongly into the channel of a peaceable but uncompromising separation from the Protestant State Establishment, with its salaried clergy, a royal veto upon the appointment of its ministers, and a royal right of arbitrary dismissal.

On this subject, we shall obtain the approbation and the thanks of our readers, by introducing some paragraphs of a very remarkable document, which appeared, nearly five years ago, in a German periodical work, the Darmstadt Ecclesiastical Gazette. We have not the original, and are therefore obliged to take our passages from the translation which appeared in the Archives du Christianisme, vol. vii. Paris, 1824. pp. 253-260.